Informal Urbanization: what do we know so far?
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2017-04-13
Author(s)
Abstract (De)
The discussion on informality has considerably diversified and complexified since its inception in the early 1970s. Independent discourses exist on the informal economy, informal housing, informal planning practices, informal land management, legal informality and informal institutions. These discussions have often directly informed development projects and policies but have remained fragmented and narrowly focused. This is highly unfortunate, as the complex interplay of formal-informal practices in the world largely escapes such a limited view and would require more a comprehensive understanding to become useful targets of development policies.
In order to break with the initial pathologies of subject fragmentation inherited from past sector-based approaches, the authors propose a cross-sector investigation of the discourses. A selective literature review on the diverging conceptualizations of informality was carried out for the discourses relevant to urban development scholars. The authors develop a taxonomy based on nine thematic dimensions to capture and systematize the identified 112 associated meanings of informality and six principal ideas on its relation to formality. The study finds that the understandings of informality greatly overlap between discourses but at the same time are different enough to enable mutual learning experiences. This taxonomy may serve as a communicative interface between different schools of thoughts. It can structure broader reviews of the literature, of which the insights could be used to develop a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary definition of informality.
In order to break with the initial pathologies of subject fragmentation inherited from past sector-based approaches, the authors propose a cross-sector investigation of the discourses. A selective literature review on the diverging conceptualizations of informality was carried out for the discourses relevant to urban development scholars. The authors develop a taxonomy based on nine thematic dimensions to capture and systematize the identified 112 associated meanings of informality and six principal ideas on its relation to formality. The study finds that the understandings of informality greatly overlap between discourses but at the same time are different enough to enable mutual learning experiences. This taxonomy may serve as a communicative interface between different schools of thoughts. It can structure broader reviews of the literature, of which the insights could be used to develop a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary definition of informality.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Event Title
11th AESOP Young Academics Conference
Event Location
Munich
Eprints ID
254379